Sean Penn’s last film as a director “pretty much got him booed off the red carpet” at Cannes, but on the basis of Flag Day, in which he also stars, he has clearly “still got it”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. In this “very watchable and well-made family drama”, he plays the real-life swindler John Vogel, who was pursued by the FBI in the 1990s for forging $100 bills on an industrial scale. Penn exudes a “buzzard-like watchfulness” as the sociopathic Vogel; his “seductive address to the camera is almost unrivalled”. As a director, too, “he knows how to bring the horsepower”. The film is based on a memoir by Vogel’s daughter, Jennifer (played by Dylan Penn, Sean Penn’s daughter with Robin Wright), a journalist who must come to terms with her father’s ceaseless lies. “There are some pretty broad emotional strokes here”, but the film made “with some style”.
Penn certainly “makes the utmost” of his “craggily dissolute features”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail, but I found him “show-offy”, and the film heavy-handed. Jennifer, who is at the centre of the story, becomes “wincingly over-lyrical in narrating the account of her blighted childhood”; and a subplot about her path into journalism also fails to thrill. The screenplay is by the normally reliable Butterworth brothers, Jez and John-Henry; still, it’s “not a bad film”, with its echoes of Paper Moon (1973) and foot-tapping soundtrack. While there’s a frisson to the familial casting, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman – Penn’s son is also in the film – it doesn’t quite make up for the sometimes “hackneyed way the story” plays out. The “Terrence Malick-style camera work” and “ornate voice-over”, meanwhile, seem designed to make the film “seem more profound” than it is.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Nepal chooses toddler as its new ‘living goddess’Under the Radar Girls between two and four are typically chosen to live inside the temple as the Kumari – until puberty strikes
-
October 5 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailoutTalking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Mustardy beans and hazelnuts recipeThe Week Recommends Nod to French classic offers zingy, fresh taste
-
Susie Dent picks her favourite booksThe Week Recommends The lexicographer and etymologist shares works by Jane Goodall, Noel Streatfeild and Madeleine Pelling
-
6 incredible homes under $1 millionFeature Featuring a home in the National Historic Landmark District of Virginia and a renovated mid-century modern house in Washington
-
The Harder They Come: ‘triumphant’ adaptation of cinema classicThe Week Recommends ‘Uniformly excellent’ cast follow an aspiring musician facing the ‘corruption’ of Kingston, Jamaica
-
House of Guinness: ‘rip-roaring’ Dublin brewing dynasty period dramaThe Week Recommends The Irish series mixes the family tangles of ‘Downton’ and ‘Succession’ for a ‘dark’ and ‘quaffable’ watch
-
Dead of Winter: a ‘kick-ass’ hostage thrillerThe Week Recommends Emma Thompson plays against type in suspenseful Minnesota-set hair-raiser ‘ringing with gunshots’
-
A Booker shortlist for grown-ups?Talking Point Dominated by middle-aged authors, this year’s list is a return to ‘good old-fashioned literary fiction’
-
Fractured France: an ‘informative and funny’ enquiryThe Week Recommends Andrew Hussey's work is a blend of ‘memoir, travelogue and personal confession’
